Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/163

i 3 4 THE HISTORY BoolcL winds along the funken ftreets of the Roman -Britifh towri, ; and now rolls over the levelled remains of the Roman- Britifh houfes. And, near the foot of the little ftreet that leads down to the river, has been formerly feen in a dry fummer a long ex- tent of a thick wall, compofed of regularly fquared ftuned, and forming evidently the bafis of a great building ; as about this part of the river in general whole pillars, broken capitals and bafes, and Roman coins and Roman infcriptioiis have been fre- quently difcovered within the channel. i From this ftation,' feefides the continued road of this feventh Iter, which I fhall hav6 occafion to mention hereafter, and among the vicinal roads to Laricafter to Overborough and to Manchefter, one paffes through Whalley and points to Colne ' This the Britifh appellation ofthetowtt, this the concurrence of i Roman road from Cambodunum at it, this the voice of tradition and the appellation of Cafter,evince to have been the fikeof a ftatioftl The road from Cambodunum ftretches vifibly oVer Stainland-Moor; pafles through the townfhips of Barkiiland andRifhworth,crofles the Devil's Caufeway and the Roman rtiad from Manchefter to Ilktey '*; and muft therefore have fcfluredly terminated at Colne. -A con* iiderable quantity of Roman coins has been- difcovered near Coliie, at Wheatley* lane, and by Emmet l And the ftation muft have been fixed where tradition fixes it, upon the tall emi- nence of Cafter-Cliff, and about a mile from the prefent town. There appears the evident ikeleton of a Roman ftation at pre- lent, a regular vallum encircled by a regular foffe. And, (land- ing on the fummit of a lofty cliff, it commands a very extenfive view of the country around it ,f # This ftation appears plainly from the prefent name of the town to have been diftinguifhed by the Britifh appellation of Co- lania among the Romans. The Britifh name of the town could have refulted only from the Britifh name of the ftation. And accordingly we find the anonymous Chorography placing fuch a ftation among thefe hills ; mentioning it next to one which was certainly among them, the Cambodunum of Antoninus, and giving it in different MSS. the different names of Calunium and Cola*